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I just love that my dad relies on me for help with Microsoft Excel (a program I never use and barely know and completely despise) because he can't figure out how to use Google to ask about his issues. /s

So after I gave dad some advice to look on Google and gave him some keywords to look for, my mom came into his study. He openly wondered if paying my college tuition for me to get a bachelor's in mathematics was worth it.

He calmed down later and I was able to explain things, but still...jeesh. Talk about manipulativeness.

@Sphinx I know, I should be happy about it, but you'd think a guy who can use Google for anything else could figure out the fine art of Googling error messages.

@mathlover

Reminds me of the process of learning is [read. Search. Ask]
Sometimes I post some questions about programming online. People tell me to use google search. Like “nobody will do your homework for you” it may sound little mean. But it is true
I also believe [do not be afraid to ask questions] is a good quote. The questions can reflect how much one person knows of one thing.

@mathlover Spreadsheets were the first big success story of the nascent software industry, way back in the late 1970's.

Visicalc was the first one, and made lots of money. Later a new upstart came in, and also was very successful -- Lotus 1-2-3.

Sometime down the road, Quatro Pro joined the fray, and seems to have been named in pure jest to Lotus's very successful program.

Excel came many years later, and it was a Windows application from the very beginning I think.

My first spreadsheets were in Lotus 123, and it was quite interesting. 😋

@mathlover Maybe I should clarify that Quatro means 4 ? As in, after 1-2-3, Quatro. Pro.

It became part of an office suite much later, along with WordPerfect, which was the King of word processors for a long time in DOS world. (I like MS Word, DOS version, much nicer, imo).

@design_RG I get it. 😀

I've heard of Excel and Lotus, but none of other spreadsheet software.

I didn't know anything about the period of software/computing history between the late seventies and early nineties until I looked it up online later in life. My parents were doing medical residency at the time, and due to the 36 hour shifts allowed back then, they had no time for anything else between working and sleeping. Thus, they do not know about that time: personal computing for them began with MS-DOS, and my father *still* thinks Gates invented DOS.

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